Saigon surrenders ... Minh ends fighting
(AP) — The Saigon government Columns of South Vietnamese weapons,
surrendered unconditionally to the troops pulled out of their defensive President Duong Van “Big” Minh
Viet Cong Wednesday, ending 30 positions in the city and marched to spoke to the nation only hours after
years of warfare. central points to turn in their an armada of U.S. Marine helicpot-
Che
Battalion
ers had completed an emergency
evacuation of nearly 900 Americans
and thousands of Vietnamese from
the besieged capital.
Minh, a retired general and neut
ralist, was named president Mon
day in a desperate and unsuccessful
attempt to negotiate a peace with
the Communist leaders.
In a five-minute radio address,
Minh said, “The Republic of Viet
nam policy is the policy of peace and
reconciliation, aimed at saving the
blood of our people. I ask all ser
vicemen to stop firing and stay
where you are. I also demand that
soldiers of the Provisional Re
volutionary Government (Viet
Cong) stop firing and stay in place.
“We are here waiting for the Pro
visional Revloutionary Govern
ment, to hand over authority in
order to stop useless bloodshed. ”
Gen. Nguyen Huu Hanh, deputy
chief of staff, then went on the air to
order all South Vietnamese troops
to carry out Minh’s orders. “All
commanders must be ready to enter
into relations with commanders of
the Provisional Revolutionary Gov
ernment to carry out the cease-fire
without bloodshed,” he said.
As they spoke, Saigon fell silent
and shellfire subsided along the
northern rim where Viet Cong gun
ners had been bombarding the air
port.
Saigon police and militiamen re
mained at their posts indicating the
Communist-led troops had not yet
entered the city.
Some South Vietnamese officers
complained that the evacuation of
Americans had caused panic in the
military, with many top army offic
ers and most of the air force fleeing.
But it had been obvious that the
capital would fall. More than a
dozen North Vietnamese-Viet Cong
divisions were ringing Saigon,
which was defended by less than
one division of demoralized green
troops.
Associated Press special corres
pondent Peter Arnett, touring the
city, reported nervous soldiers fired
occasionally into the air but he saw
no dead or wounded. Soldiers near
the radio station at the northeastern
edge of town said Communist-led
forces had moved up to the Saigon
River bridge and were poised to
enter the city.
Minh s surrender came hours
after Americans left Saigon in an
armada of 81 helicopters guarded by
800 Marines. The evacuating
See Saigon, page 5
Vol 68 No 113
College Station, Texas 1
Wednesday, April 30, 1975
Calvert hit by tornado; six
hospitalized with injuries
By JERRY NEEDHAM
Staff Writer
A tornado ripped through Calvert
at 6:10 p.m. Tuesday, causing ex
tensive damage and sending six re
sidents to the hospital.
Robertson County Sheriff E. P.
“Sonny” Elliott said the tornado
moved through the city from the
southwest to northeast.
Debris was strewn about the area
and dozens of downed and uprooted
trees. Power and telephone lines
were down all over the city.
Sheriff Elliott said five of the in
jured were treated at a hospital in
Heame and released. James Rigby,
a highschool teacher, lost an arm
when flying debris struck him. He
was still in the hospital as of late
Tuesday.
The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) set up
headquarters in an undamaged high
school building by 10 p.m. A
spokesman for the CAP said an airp
lane will fly over Robertson County
this morning looking for other areas
of damage.
E. L. Maris, an employee of Gulf
States Utilities which serves the
area, said damage was not as wide
spread as he first thought.
“We will have to go in and cut
down all the lines and rebuild. Most
of the power poles are still up,” he
said.
About one-third of the elemen
tary school was destroyed and on
the other side of town extensive
damage was sustained at the high
school. Windows in the high school
were shattered and a utility building
was also destroyed.
A Bryan National Guard team ar-1
rived at the scene at 10:40 p.m. to
help clean up the debris and assess
damages.
BflllMIIIIMjTflHBBH ■
Tornado Touches Down
The Bryan-CS area felt the influence of some very unusual and severe weather last night. A tornado touched down in Calvert,
causing this mobile home to overturn. For more photos, see page 3.
(Photo by Steve Krauss)
Rape
Most rapidly increasing crime
^***mmt:
kMP I
Gail McClure displays her MSC cowhide bench
button at Peniston Cafeteria. (Photo by jack Holm)
By DAVID ROOP
Staff Writer
Rape is a crime against women
and against society, and is the most
rapidly increasing serious criminal
activity of the 1970’s.
In an effort to further the under
standing of our society’s attitudes
towards rape and towards the laws
regarding it, the Texas A&M
Women’s Awareness Workshop
sponsored a panel discussion Tues
day night in Rudder Center.
Panelists included Bradley
Smith, deputy district attorney;
Gary Boyd, Texas A&M Police De
partment; Dr. Sarah Jones,
psychologist; Dr. Bonnie Stadel-
man, Texas A&M History Depart
ment; Marge Swacker, Texas A&M
English Department, and Sarah
Robinson, Texas A&M Sociology
Department.
As a crime, rape has increased 70
percent in the last five years. In
Texas, 3,435 rapes were reported in
1974. Quadruple this number and
you have the amount that actually
occurred, for it is estimated that
only one out of four are ever re
ported to the police.
This problem, it seems, is at least
partially caused by the way society
views rape, and more importantly,
the rape victim.
As Deputy D. A. Smith said, “Our
society has placed a stigma upon the
rape victim that is totally uncalled
for. ”
Swacker further examined the
problem. The attitudes towards
rape, she said, “stem from our
heritage”, and are present in our
literature, folklore, and even our
jokes.
Three of the ideas concerning
rape that are totally false and yet
continue to exist, she said, are (1)
rape is a punishment and the victim
is getting what she deserves — for
hitchhiking, wearing short skirts, or
whatever; (2) rape is pleasurable —
(remember the courtroom scenes
on television where the cross-
examining lawyer asks the rape vic
tim “Did you enjoy it?”); (3) women
are sexual objects.
Dr. Stadelman, discussing the
historical aspects of rape, said “Cul
turally, women have always been
viewed as objects. As long as people
continue to regard others as objects,
history will continue to record wars,
violence, and rape,”
“Rape,” she continued, “has gone
hand-in-hand with wars,” and social
violence often encourages personal
violence. A current example of this
would be the widescale rape and
plunder by soldiers in Vietnam.
In addition to the physical effects,
rape often causes emotional and
psychological harm which may per
sist long after the physical effects
have disappeared.
“Rape is a major psychological
trauma,” Dr. Jones said. “It has all
the characteristics of a horrible ex
perience.”
The effects are often permanent,
however, because “the individual
does not get community support,”
as she would during a severe illness
or other traumatic experience. “She
has to go through it by herself,”
Jones said.
The victim of a rape, she said,
commonly goes through several
psychological stages. First, directly
after the rape, is the “acute reac
tion during which the victim may
be almost incoherent. Police ques
tioning during this period may be
very difficult, and the woman needs
a lot of reassurance and an oppor
tunity to talk about the experience.
Next, is the period of pseudo
adjustment, in which the women
tries to forget about the experience.
However, “it hasn’t really been
dealt with,” Jones said, and isn’t yet
truly accepted. Finally, the woman
goes through a stage of depression.
She must deal with her feelings
about herself (which often includes
guilt), and about the attacker. Be
cause of this, Jones advises all rape
victims to seek professional gui
dance, “to integrate the experience
into her life.”
Garry Boyd, in discussing the law
asnects of rape, said the job of the
policeman is to provide enough evi
dence to prosecute the case.
“It’s the burden of the state to
prove that the subject is guilty,” he
said. And, in talking to the victim,
the policeman must try to relate and
show compassion for the woman.
Our society must realize,
Swacker said, that women are not
objects, rape is not good or pleasur
able and the rape victim does not
cause the crime any more than a
bank causes its own robbery.
“The problem will exist, Smith
said, “until society changes its per
ception of the rape victim. Eventu
ally, by just discussing it, we will get
the subject out of the closet and into
the open.”
Two dead in explosion
EAGLE PASS (AP) — A butane
gas truck exploded here Tuesday af
ternoon killing at least two people,
and injuring about 50. At least two
other persons were reported mis
sing, including the driver of the
truck.
Twenty-one of the injured, many
with burns over 80 per cent of their
bodies, were taken to the Burns
Center at Brooke Army Medical
Center in San Antonio. The truck,
owned by Surtigas, a company from
Piedras Negras, a Mexican city ac
ross the border from Eagle Pass,
split in two as it tried to avoid hitting
a car and overturned and exploded,
police said.
The truck erupted into a ball of
flame that shot up about 200 feet in
the air. One half of the truck rock
eted into a mobile home park about
Today.
Inside
Saigon p. 5
Rocknotes p. 7
Quarterback p. 9
Weather
Mostly cloudy with 40 per
cent chance of showers and
thundershowers Wednes
day. High both days mkl-
80s. Low tonight 66.
Southerly winds 5-12 mph.
Partly cloudy Thursday.
400 yards away and hit three homes.
“We have two dead at the hospi
tal. One was dead on arrival,” said
Ruben Fernandez, administrator of
the Eagle Pass Hospital.
Fernandez said at least 17 of those
injured were in critical condition. A
team of burns experts from the
military installation rushed to the
Eagle Pass hospital and organized
the transfer of the seriously injured.
Fernandez said late Tuesday 42
persons were still in the hospital.
A spokesman for the Sheriff s of
fice said the driver of the truck,
identified as Jesus Verduzco, was
still missing. So was the driver of a
car that was immediately in front of
the truck when the explosion occur
red.
Board members OK
three agenda items
f w
Ms. Bonnie Stadelman, A&M History professor, discussed historic cases of rape and misuse of women
at the Rape Forum last night. (Photo by Glen Johnson)
Suit says discrimination
present in A&M system
Time: 11:00 a.m.?
Date: April 29, 1975.
Place: The Brigadier Room of the
Executive Inn, Dallas, TX.
Event: TAMU Board of Directors
special meeting.
In a specially called out-of-town
meeting, the Board of Directors ap
proved three agenda items. Not in
cluded on the agenda was the prop
osed room board and laundry in
creases. These items are scheduled
for the May meeting.
The reason for the meeting in
Dallas was the convenience in
transportation and the time element
involved, commented a high ad
ministration source.
A contract was awarded to Mar-
Cal, Inc. ofBryanforthe renovation
of Joe Routt Street. TAMU Presi
dent Dr. Jack Williams told The
Battalion the construction area ex
tends from Throckmorton to G. Rol-
lie White Coliseum. The renovation
cost is $329,000.
The board also approved the lease
of an automated phone system that
will allow TAMU offices to use
Wide-Area-Telephone Service
(WATS) without going through an
operator. The system lease will cost
the university $97,435.
Also approved was the board
schedule for upcoming budget
meetings for the ’75-’76 fiscal year.
By KARLA MOURITSEN
Staff Writer
“Suit Filed Against A&M Top Of
ficials’ was a rather misleading
headline in the Bryan Eagle last
week.
Granted, there had been a suit
filed against Texas A&M Univer
sity, its Board of Directors and the
Texas Agricultural Extension Ser
vice for alleged discrimination
against blacks, women, and
Mexican-Americans. But the suit
was filed early in 1972.
The action that occurred in
Washington was a request by the
Justice Department to intervene on
behalf of the plaintiff in the original
suit. The plaintiff, Preston E. Poole,
was a county staff member of the
Agriculture Extension Service in
Galveston County in 1972.
When he was not promoted to the
position of County Agriculture
Agent, he filed the suit alleging that
he was denied the promotion solely
on the basis of his race (Black).
He also alleged that there was
discrimination in the quality of the
service provided to the minority
groups by the Extension Service.
Now the Justice Department is
seeking to take the case for Poole.
Dr. John Hutchison, director of
the Agriculture Extension Service,
stated Tuesday that the service is
“an equal opportunity employer.”
“We operate under the terms of
the equal opportunity program ap
proved by the Secretary of Agricul
ture in 1971, and by the plans of the
Affirmative Action Program ap
proved by the Secretary of Agricul
ture in 1973,” he said.
He feels the Extension Service
“provides professional employment
for a larger percentage of blacks
proportionately than any other pro
fessional staff in Texas.”
The total personnel of the Exten
sion Service number 1,837. Of
these, 1,280 (70 percent) are Anglo,
350 (19 percent) are Black, and 207
(11 percent) are Mexican-American
or of Spanish sumame. These totals
include all clerical and secretarial
staffs.
According to Dr. Hutchison, all
professional staff personnel are
given notice of any vacancies that
occur. They have two weeks to file
an application for the position.
“We endeavor to select the
proper person solely on job-related
criteria,” he said.
“We have done our best to carry
out the Affirmative Action Prog
ram,” said Hutchison. “If ir
regularities are called to our atten
tion, we try to correct them as
quickly and efficiently as possible.”
Should the Justice Department
be the victor in this case, the Ag
ricultural Extension Service could
be ruled ineligible to receive any of
its federal funding.